Nuts (1987)

A high-class call girl accused of murder fights for the right to stand trial rather than be declared mentally incompetent.

Director:

Martin Ritt

Writers:

Tom Topor (play), Tom Topor (screenplay),

Stars:

Barbra Streisand, Richard Dreyfuss, Maureen Stapleton

Nominated for 3 Golden Globes.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Barbra Streisand	...	Claudia Draper
Richard Dreyfuss	...	Aaron Levinsky
Maureen Stapleton	...	Rose Kirk
Karl Malden	...	Arthur Kirk
Eli Wallach	...	Dr. Herbert A. Morrison
Robert Webber	...	Francis MacMillan
James Whitmore	...	Judge Stanley Murdoch
Leslie Nielsen	...	Allen Green
William Prince	...	Clarence Middleton
Dakin Matthews	...	1st Judge
Paul Benjamin	...	Harry Harrison
Warren Manzi	...	Saul Kreiglitz
Elizabeth Hoffman	...	Dr. Johnson
Castulo Guerra	...	Dr. Arantes
Stacy Bergman	...	16 year-old Claudia

Storyline

A high-class call girl kills a customer in self-defense. To avoid scandal, her parents try to have her declared mentally incompetent. Not helping matters is that she is very distrustful of everybody, including her court-appointed attorney, and is very disruptive during her court hearings.

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Plot Keywords:

self defense | hearing | court | murder | attorney | 

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Taglines:

Mad As In Angry. Or Just Plain... NUTS

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Genres:

Drama | Thriller

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

20 November 1987 (USA)

Also Known As:

Nuts ... Durchgedreht

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$25,000,000 (estimated)

Gross:

$8,152,529 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros, Barwood Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

116 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

It was while filming this movie that Leslie Nielsen was visited by the Zuckers, to be invited to reprise his role as Det. Frank Drebin in the Naked Gun motion picture - a call Nielsen admitted he had been hoping for since the end of the Police Squad! TV series.

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Quotes

Francis MacMillan: Did your husband leave you when you got pregnant?
Claudia Draper: No, I had an abortion.
Francis MacMillan: Why?
Claudia Draper: [long pause] I don't believe in childhood.

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Connections

Referenced in A Boy's Life (1997)

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Soundtracks

"SINDHI-BHAIRAVI"
Traditional Raga
Performed by Ravi Shankar
Courtesy of CBS Records
(Apartment Music)

User Reviews

Riveting courtroom drama; one of the best of it's kind

Badly neglected by both audiences and critics at the time of it's original release, NUTS is a film that is ripe for reevaluation. Based on Tom Toplor's 1981 courtroom play, NUTS is definitely a dialogue-based film with little Hollywood flashiness. Though extremely well-written (by Toplor, adapting his own work with Darryl Ponicsan and Alvin Sargent) and sharply staged and directed by veteran Martin Ritt, it is the cast whom is really responsible bringing NUTS to life. Barbra Streisand gives an absolutely bravura performance that should have earned her an Oscar nomination. Alternately hilarious and frightening, Streisand is always mesmerizing as she delves so far into character.

Richard Dreyfess is nothing less than Streisand's equal as her public defender. He too was robbed of an Oscar nomination. The supporting cast is a top-notch ensemble of professional character actors (Maureen Stapleton, Eli Wallach, Robert Webber, James Whitmore, and Karl Malden), all of whom work their craft flawlessly. NUTS' screenplay does indulge in the predictability of some of the typical courtroom-plot conventions a little too often, but Toplor's absorbing script still deserves high praise for it's fascinating exploration of what constitutes as normality and whether or not the insane should be required to receive treatment. NUTS isn't going to win over any fans of 3-cuts-per-second action films, but it will leave lovers of thought-provoking, expertly-acted dramas fascinated.